Vancouver’s Retsly Acquired by Real Estate Marketplace Zillow

Zillow, Inc, the Seattle-based real estate and home-related marketplace, today announced it has acquired Vancouver, BC -based Retsly, a software company that normalizes real estate data from multiple listing services so developers can build data-driven products for the real estate industry. The company also provides MLSs with the tools to manage software applications in their market and ensure their content is being used appropriately. Zillow is not disclosing the financial terms of the acquisition.

The acquisition might not be surprising: back in October Retsly scored some serious exposure when it held a real estate hackathon in San Francisco, partnering up with the National Association of REALTORS Conference and Expo at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Retsly’s goal is to normalize real estate data from MLSs so developers can create new, data-driven products to benefit brokers, agents, franchisors and MLSs. The company also provides MLSs with the tools to manage software applications in their market and ensure their content is being used appropriately.

The acquisition of Retsly is an “extension of Zillow’s efforts to provide innovative productivity tools to help brokers, agents, franchisors and MLSs be more productive and successful.”

Zillow is calling the acquisition is an extension of its Zillow Tech Connect program. Zillow Tech Connect, launched in November 2013, enables leading technology companies to directly integrate with Zillow to help brokers and agents deliver better, smarter services to buyers and sellers.

“Retsly’s platform will spur tremendous innovation in the real estate space, enabling developers to build software that works across MLS boundaries and without the overhead of dealing with local data formats,” said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. “Retsly’s team and cutting-edge technology is a great fit with Zillow and aligns with our goal to offer great value and services to our industry partners. We’re thrilled to welcome Retsly to Zillow.”

“We are committed to providing the software development community with tools that make it easier to build amazing technology products and applications for real estate professionals,” said Retsly cofounder Joshua Lopour. “With Zillow, we look forward to accelerating the growth of a vibrant software community within the industry.”

Retsly, which was founded in 2013, will continue to operate from Vancouver.

This is Zillow’s eighth acquisition, and the sixth of a company that offers a suite of business-to-business tools for local professionals.